Black elected officials who pleaded guilty in connection to a sweeping probe into corruption in Mississippi’s capital city weren’t targeted because of their race, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Baxter Kruger said in a Tuesday press conference.
Kruger, who was nominated by President Donald Trump in December, was responding to allegations attorneys supporting former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba made on the courthouse steps Monday.
“There are no racial issues that we’re dealing with here,” Kruger said, referencing a recent jury conviction of former Canton Municipal Utilities engineer Rudy Warnock for conspiracy to commit bribery.
Warnock, a white man, was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year.
Kruger also disagreed with claims from some in Jackson that former Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, Lumumba and former Jackson City Council member Aaron Banks received lenient sentences.
Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens speaks outside the federal courthouse in Jackson after he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge on Monday, June 29, 2026. Credit: Richard Lake/Mississippi Today“They had to admit their guilt, and that’s consistent with the charges that we levied against them,” Kruger told reporters at Jackson’s federal courthouse.
The investigation began under then-President Joseph Biden’s administration. In 2024, a federal grand jury indicted Owens, Lumumba and Banks for allegedly taking bribes from undercover FBI agents who posed as real estate developers seeking to invest in downtown Jackson.
The agents enlisted an unsuspecting Owens to act as a go-between with other elected officials in a sting operation similar to those conducted in other U.S. cities.
In the 32-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Owens facilitated tens of thousands of dollars in bribes on behalf of the agents to Lumumba and Banks in exchange for their agreement to help the developers get approval to build a hotel on a plot of land in downtown Jackson the city had obtained a federal loan to develop.
Prosecutors brought stiff charges. Owens was indicted on eight counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery and money laundering, and faced a cumulative 95 years in prison. Lumumba was indicted on five counts and faced up to 75 years in prison. Banks was indicted on two counts and faced up to 15 years in prison.
But in July, the three officials pleaded to a similar charge: Conspiracy, which carries up to five years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine.
Whether they go to prison and for how long will be determined by U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III at a hearing in October. But some legal observers say the three officials are facing much less time in custody than they anticipated.
Matt Steffey, a Mississippi Christian University School of Law professor, said it’s common for federal prosecutors to seek multiple counts in white collar conspiracies, because they will charge each individual crime committed in the course of the scheme.
At most, the professor said, the officials could have been sentenced to the maximum penalty for their most serious offense, which was 20 years for Owens and Lumumba, and 10 years for Banks.
Former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, left, exits the federal courthouse in downtown Jackson behind his sister, Rukia Lumumba, after he pleaded guilty in a public corruption case on Monday, July 6, 2026. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today“I don’t want to minimize the moral implications of what they did,” Steffey said. “But how much time do they have to sit in federal prison for us to feel satisfied the public has been vindicated?”
The former officials will also face collateral consequences, Steffey said. All three must give up their firearms.
Unlike the other two defendants, prosecutors agreed not to seek forfeiture from the former district attorney, according to his plea agreement. This means the federal government won’t take possession of property he used in the course of the conspiracy.
That includes Owens’ Downtown Cigar Company, a tobacco shop and lounge where he held conversations with the undercover agents and that was raided in a prelude to the indictment in 2024.
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